Iran has said it is willing to resume the stalled international talks over its contentious nuclear programme, the EU said today.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, sent the EU's foreign policy chief, the British peer Lady Ashton, a letter saying he was prepared to continue the talks, which halted a year ago, "in a place and on a date convenient to both sides" after 10 November.

"I think this is a very significant move," Ashton told reporters at the EU summit in Brussels. Earlier this month Ashton – who is the main contact point for Iran in talks involving Britain, France and Germany along with the US, Russia and China – invited Jalili for three days of negotiations in Vienna next month.

One unnamed EU diplomat told Reuters the meeting could now take place in Geneva instead and that the aim was for three days of talks with "everything on the table", including a general discussion of Iran's nuclear activities. "We see this all as a very positive sign, there is a strong sense of optimism," the diplomat said.

Lengthy stop-start talks ground to a halt in October last year over Iran's reluctance to agree a deal that would allow its stockpile of enriched uranium to be used only for civilian purposes, with much of it sent abroad for processing.

Since then the EU, US and UN have introduced tougher economic sanctions against Iran, a tactic which has produced few results. Earlier this week Iran said it had begun loading uranium fuel rods into the core of its first nuclear plant, the Bushehr facility in the south of the country, which was built with Russian assistance.

Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, but the US and EU, in particular, fear it is seeking to acquire sufficient enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon.

The UN-drafted deal on offer to Tehran at last year's talks would have seen Iran's enriched uranium sent overseas for further processing into fuel rods that would be returned for use in powering a medical research reactor. These rods could not be easily turned into the more enriched grade of uranium needed for armaments.

There is no immediate sign that Iran is prepared to give ground on the so-called fuel swap, particularly given that any new offer is likely to have tougher conditions attached.

The US state department has confirmed that the US and EU are close to agreeing a common negotiating position. They will insist Iran sends a significantly higher proportion of its uranium abroad, making the prospect of a nuclear weapon even more remote.

Another potential obstacle is whether Iran will again seek to have Israel's nuclear arsenal – never confirmed but widely presumed to exist – covered by the talks. In reporting the offer to Ashton, Iranian television referred to previous conditions for talks, including "clarification on Israel's ambiguous nuclear programme".

Earlier this month Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, endorsed the idea of new talks but warned they would fail if the west does not clearly come out against Israel's nuclear arsenal.

Also this week, the EU published its list of sanctions against Iran, which go beyond the measures previously imposed by the UN. They include a ban on investing in Iran's oil and gas industries, also covering shipping, air freight, insurance and banking, and companies and individuals linked to the Revolutionary Guard.